Insomnia and Nightmares
by e-no91
Summary: Ed could not get to sleep, what would Al do to help his brother?


**The idea just came out of nowhere... haha**  
**Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arakawa-sensei...**

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**Midnight.

In a small town, there is a small inn where two travellers have set foot and decided to spend the night there. A room with two beds and each with a drawer at the foot of the bed, it is a small yet comfortable room.

A small figure is seen to be tossing around on his bed, in and out of his covers, sits up and lies down many, many times.

"Nii-san… Stop moving around like that!" a voice, strict yet concerned, came from the hollow armour. Alphonse Elric, the younger brother, sat up on his bed and looked across the other side of the room, only to found his brother, in his light-blue boxers, still tossing around. "Just go to sleep, nii-san."

"I'd love to, Al. But I can't! Argh!" Edward Elric buried himself under the covers and shut his eyes hard, but after a few minutes, he emerges from the thick blanket, gasping for air.

"That's why I told you not to have a long nap in the afternoon, but you never listen to me!"

"Yeah, yeah… I know, I know. It's my fault…" Ed lied down once again on his bed, those golden eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Huh… What should I do now?"

"Well, there is one way…"

At this word, Ed hastily got up from his bed and looked at his brother. "What? What?"

"You could drink a cup of hot mil-"

"NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"

Al gave a little chuckle. 'It's gonna be more interesting if Winry's around', he thought. "Okay, how about reading a book, then?" the brother suggested.

"Hmm? What book?"

Al quickly replied," How about that notebook you always carry around?" Ed's small traveler's log, is full of so many notes written in codes which Al finds very boring to read, since he never succeeded in deciphering them.

"Owh, ok. I'll try that." Edward reached for his red coat and took the notebook from the pocket.

For a moment, there's silence.

'Guess it works', Al thought. He glanced at Edward and could tell that,' Nope, it's not working at all…'

Edward scans through the pages of his notebook, his eyes got wider after each page, wider and wider… "…..ARGHH! I COULDN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" He slammed the book and tossed it on the floor. A tiny shriek could be heard from the armour. "This isn't working, Al! That notebook keeps me thinking and thinking! How am I suppose to sleep if my brain keeps working?"

"Ah…um….Ok, how about if I shut all the lights off till it's really dark? Maybe you'll fell sleepy easily," Al said as he picked the notebook and put it on the nearest table.

"Ok, switch off the lights, Al," the elder commanded.

Al switched of the table lamp, the only light that illuminates dimly in the small room. In pitch black, Ed lied down and struggle back to sleep.

_CLANK_

"Al! What's that?" Ed got up from his bed.

"It fell!" Al replied.

"What fell?" Ed got down from his bed and felt his leg kicked on something. 'Guess this must be the thing that fell.' He picked up that 'something'. It's huge and cold and kind of round. Ed turned whatever he is holding 180 degrees sideways and founds himself staring into two balls of bluish light right in front of his face and a voice saying, "Thank you, nii-san."

"AH! GHOST!" Ed throws the 'ghost' away from him, causing it to fling across the room and resulting in a loud CLANK as it bumped onto its owner. Al switched on the light, and almost burst out laughing seeing his brother slumped on the floor with his shocked white-pale face.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE YOUR POOR BROTHER A HEART ATTACK?" Edward shouted the top of his lungs, breathing fast, cold sweat all over his face.

"Well, guess that didn't work either," Alphonse calmly said.

"Unless if you want me to be sleeping for good," Edward replied sarcastically.

Al gave out a sighed and sat back on his bed, left the table-lamp to be remained on.

Ed got onto his bed as well, pull up his covers and facing the way opposite of Al, his way of pouting.

"Hmmmm…. There is another simple way people would use to get themselves to sleep," Al said, hoping to get a response from his short-tempered brother.

Still facing the wall, Ed asked, "What?"

"Counting sheeps!" Al exclaimed, remembering the sweet memories of him and their mother.

"Owh," Ed had a thought of their mother too, turned back to the other side of the bed, and said, "That'll most probably work."

An invisible smile formed beneath the metal helmet, though one could tell that Al is smiling by the soft look in his eyes. His brother, determined this time to fall to sleep, lied on his back and close his eyes, readying to count those sheeps.

Edward founds himself in a dark world of his thoughts, with only a spotlight above him. "Now, imagine yourself in a farm," Alphonse instructed. Edward focused and imagined as what he is told. In a split second, the dark world changed into a beautiful scenery with wide green field, the smell of grass, fresh scent of flowers, " a farmhouse, with many, many animal farms, a fence…" Slowly, Al's voice fades away, leaving Edward in his world.

"Ah….so now I have to count sheeps." Ed went to the fence he imagined earlier and got sheeps to jump over them. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,….This is boring! When are the sheeps supposed to end?" –It ends when you're asleep, Ed…- Ed got so mad that he transmuted a ring of fire in replace of the fence. An evil grin formed on his face. "Heh heh, Now to have some animals jump through that!"

He scanned through his imaginary farm and spotted ducks. 'Yes!'

Poor ducks are his first victims. They forcefully jumped through the ring, with Ed counting from eleven till all thirty ducks have jumped through the ring-o'-doom. Still, Ed doesn't feel sleepy. He searched for other animals in the farm. From chickens, to goose, to pigs, to goats, to horses, to stray cats(even in his dreams, he remembers his brother) and even fishes, Edward is still not sleepy after counting for over a 100 by now.

"Ah…what next…." Ed rounds his farm again and founds a cattle of cows. "Why didn't I see that before? Oh, well. Time to count some cows!"

Edward got the cow to jump over the moon and starts counting from 100. The cows jump and jump and jump, and Edward keeps counting and counting and counting until he notices something weird happening to the cows. Slowly, they morphed into a square-shaped container and landed in front of Edward. He could make out the words 'MILK' written clearly on the boxes in front of him.

"WHA-?" Edward started shivering and sweating. "What do you want from me?"

The Milk boxes adds more and more as if they're multiplying themselves, saying "Drink me~~Drink me~~" in an eerie voice. "Drink me so you won't stay short forever~~ Drink me~~~!"

This ticked Ed. He stands in his fighting stance and ready to fight all the Milk boxes, shouting his war cry, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT AND IS A DWARF TO A DWARF?" He punches a few boxes, causing white liquid to spill all over his coat. "EW…..!" Ed tries to fight but hundreds and thousands of Milk boxes jumps down from the moon and glomps over Ed.

Edward got himself out of the mess and started running full speed round his farm with the boxes tailing not far from him.

"Don't! Don't!"

"Nii-san!"

"Noo!"

Alphonse tries to shook his brother awake, but to no avail. 'Nii-san must be having a nightmare. But why would he have a nightmare from counting sheeps?'

"Mm….Mmm! Get away from me! Evil black and white milk boxes!" Ed mumbles in his sleep, tossing about on his bed.

Alphonse just gave a small sigh and decided to leave his brother as it is.

END


End file.
